'Britain's trade unions must prove their worth to millions of young workers who are in low paid and insecure employment or the future is bleak', Communist Party trade union organiser Andy Bain declared at the conclusion of the TUC annual conference on Wednesday.

Addressing the party's Political Committee in Brighton, he welcomed the emphasis on building 'new model unionism' in the modern workplace. But he warned that mass recruitment and militancy are not enough.

'Hand in hand with a bolder, fighting spirit there needs to be a conscious, planned effort to develop workers' understanding of capitalist economics and state power', Mr Bain urged.

While more unions were arguing for the need to regulate labour within the framework of collective bargaining, instead of allowing multinational corporations to exploit the free movement of labour, he insisted that the movement of other commodities and capital should also be regulated.

'A left-led Labour government would find that many of its policies to invest in public sector infrastructure, assist key industries, provide equal rights for all workers, reform public procurement contracts and limit VAT contravene EU Single Market rules', Mr Bain pointed out.

'The pro-EU free market fundamentalism promoted by some Labour Party spokespersons and trade union leaders serves the interests of big business, not those of working people', the former union president added.

Britain's Communists therefore reaffirmed their support for Lexit: the Left Leave Campaign and welcomed the mass distribution to TUC delegates of its new pamphlet by Lexit chair and CP general secretary Robert Griffiths.

The success of the party's fringe meeting on the EU and the warm reception by TUC delegates of its daily bulletin Unity! was noted with satisfaction.

The CP political committee also announced plans to hold a central branch secretaries and cadre school on October 28 in London, to be followed in the evening by a centenary celebration of the Russian Socialist Revolution organised by the Coordinating Committee of Communist Parties domiciled in Britain.